| I always (well after the frisson the first time I heard the story) thought
that the locuust on which John fed was the bean, not the bug. Carob ("St. John's Bread" after all) would be a more reliable source of a better quality food than even a non-migratory salterinal orthopter, both of whose descriotions suggest they are hard to catch. "Akris," the Greek word involved, seems to be ambiguous just like the English "locust." The Hebrew situation is strange: carob seems never to be mentioned in the Bible -- in spite of being all over the place. On the other hand, I have heard (but cannot now trace down) the claim that one kind of locust-bug is mentioned in the rules somewhere (Leviticus?) where a plant would make more sense. |